Saturday, December 26, 2009

I really hope one of the other Pandacam watchers caught the recent antics on video, because just a few minutes ago, His Chubbiness was climbing around on that log and plank arrangement you can see in the background--and then he faw down go boom, while Mama snoozed away in the foreground. If I can get it, I will of course post it.

As a side note... the particular yard Mama and Baby are playing in is called the "classroom" and is not visible to the public. Baby hasn't gone out on public exhibit yet. Apparently Mama herself will decide when it's time, and haul him out there herself.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

In pop culture depictions, snowflakes are usually drawn inaccurately, an expert now says. Snowflakes are six-cornered, rather than the four-, five- and eight-cornered crystals typically depicted in children's books, Christmas cards and even in an ad for a science magazine.

Thomas Koop of Bielefeld University in Germany noticed the frosty mistake on a subscription advertisement for the scientific journal Nature that contained octagonal snow crystals in the background.

"Ironically it was entitled '...for anyone who loves science,'" Koop said. Bringing the irony full circle, Koop's commentary on the subject is published in the Dec. 24 issue of Nature.

Snowflakes are made of water molecules that link up via hydrogen bonds. The best and most efficient way to arrange themselves is a hexagonal crystal lattice, Koop explained. So rather than eight sides, snowflakes are bound by physical laws to take on a six-sided shape.

And if that weren't enough, raindrops are also inaccurately depicted.

"The shape of falling rain drops is depicted incorrectly in almost any (children's) book that I know of," Koop said. "Most often, they are drawn in a teardrop-like shape, a kind of pinnacle at the top and round at the bottom."

He added, "However, in reality cloud droplets are spherical because of water's surface tension and falling rain drops are somewhat flattened at the bottom (depending on their fall speed), because of the resistance they feel as they fall through the air (similar to the drag that you feel in your face when you bike)."

Friday, December 18, 2009

They're tearing up the streets. Right by the mall. Right before Christmas.

I tried to run an errand today. Have a look at the map. You can see the most direct route from point A to point B--but a crucial street near point A is completely blocked for construction right now. The route I was forced to take is shown (sort of) in green. As you can see, it goes clear off the map in a couple of places.

Why didn't I take some of those in-between streets? Because they don't go through, that's why. Amazing as it may seem, the route I took was indeed the most direct route to my destination.

Adding insult to injury, when I got to point B--they were closed! So after all that, my trip was a complete waste of time.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Quoted at Wizbang, posted at Brutally Honest, by guest blogger Locutisprime, quoting an e-mail from a friend. (Did you follow all that? S'okay; neither did I.)

To the editor:

I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night.

Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family?

I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests."

Just because they weren't officially invited doesn't mean they should be treated like criminals. Maybe they should get free health care, free housing, free legal services and free White House green cards so next time they can enter legally. And they should be able to bring all of their relatives and family members, too.

How can Mr. Obama be mad at them just because they crossed over some arbitrary man-made border? They were there only to do the things that regularly invited guests didn't want to do. (Like hang out with Joe Biden.)

How can the White House punish these poor oppressed undocumented visitors?